The movement which sought to recover for the
Jewish people their historic Palestinian homeland (the Eretz Israel) after
centuries of dispersion. The modern movement arose in the late 19th-c with
plans for Jewish colonization of Palestine, and under Theodor Herzl also
developed a political programme to obtain sovereign state rights over the
territory.

Gaining support after World War 1, its
objectives were supported by the British Balfour Declaration in 1917, as long
as rights for non-Jews in Palestine were not impaired. After World War 2, the
establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 received United Nations support.
Zionism is still active, as a movement encouraging diaspora Jews to immigrate
to and take an interest in the Jewish state.